Back in the day when Torch, the Big V, and I were inseparable, we used to hang out with a rather scruffy looking friend. He was hard to look at, but extremely witty, and we often laughed so hard our eyes were closed and streaming with tears, so it hardly mattered.

He had a truck that was just as hard to look at as he was. It had rust holding it together (sort of), but you had to be very careful if you were attempting to get into the back portion, because the fenders and sides were particularly unstable.

We dubbed it “The Crummy Old Truck” and we loved to go places in it. It was probably the shock value of seeing so many cute young women parading around in a crummy old truck with an equally repulsive looking driver. And sometimes, we would encourage him to verbally abuse us in crowds, just to see the looks on people’s faces. I could say our excuse was we didn’t get out much, but we were out all the time.

When the Queen Mother visited our city, I began to practice my “Queen Mother Wave”. Sitting on a chair in the back of the crummy old truck. While being driven around downtown. Waving to my people.Torch and the Big V have called me “The Queen” ever since.

It was particularly funny when the Big V wrote a newsletter from England, and inserted a page celebrating my impending visit. I quote:

Are you becoming a nervous wreck over the Queen’s arrival? Don’t!

Throw all your fancy clothes in the closet and dig out your rags. As illustrated in the photo below, The Queen is a casual dresser.